The Acquisition of Academic and Executive Functioning Skills During Early Elementary School

• In Event: Promoting well-being, social-emotional development and executive functioning in early childhood classrooms

Abstract

The fade-out of prekindergarten (pre-k) impacts has raised questions about whether skills typically promoted in pre-k predict the acquisition of skills needed for school success (Farran & Lipsey, 2017; Yoshikawa et al., 2016). The present study considered two broad categories of skill: academic (i.e., math and reading skills) and cognitive (i.e., language and executive functioning). There is concern that early education places too much emphasis on basic academic skills (Bailey et al., 2014; Snow & Matthews, 2016). Cognitive skills are typically more difficult to teach but may better prepare children to handle the increasingly complex demands of school (Snow & Matthews, 2016). This study related school-entry basic academic and cognitive skills to gains in academic and cognitive skills during the first two years of elementary school. We hypothesized that a skill within a given domain will be the best predictor of that outcome and that cognitive skills will be the best predictors of gains over time.

The present study used a sample of 455 children who attended a state-funded pre-k program (see Table 1 for descriptive information). Each fall and spring, children were administered the Woodcock-Johnson III Battery to measure math, basic literacy, and vocabulary skills and the NIH EF Toolbox to measure cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. Teacher’s rated classroom behavior skills on the Learning Behaviors Scale. Hierarchical linear models analyzed children’s skill trajectories across four points from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of first grade. Models estimated individual trajectories while accounting for the nesting of children in schools and covariates. The first level estimated individual quadratic growth curves and the second level regressed the individual intercepts and slopes onto the child’s pre-k skills. Multiple imputation was used to address missing data.

As shown in Table 2, while pre-k skills within a given area tended to be the best predictors of outcomes within that same area at the start kindergarten, more limited evidence emerged to support the prediction of outcomes across domains. There was some evidence of cross-domain predictions in the fall of kindergarten. For example, math skills were positively predicted by all skills except cognitive flexibility and decoding. Considering gains over time, higher pre-k math skills, inhibitory control, and learning behaviors were related to greater gains in decoding with larger gains being made earlier. For vocabulary, higher pre-k inhibitory control was related to greater gains over time. For the remaining significant predictors of gains, starting with a higher level of pre-k skill was related to smaller gains.

Results suggest that early skills within a given domain predict school-age outcomes in that same domain and that starting with higher skills in a given area will often relate to slower gains in that area over time. However, the present study did not find consistent evidence to suggest that cognitive skills predict larger gains. Overall, both cognitive and academic skills appear to play a role in child outcomes, suggesting that researchers should take a more balanced approach toward considering both types of skills in relation to children’s school success.

Authors

• Tiffany Jamie Foster, Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Kylie Garber, Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Margaret Burchinal, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author